Paid Vaca: B.C.S. report

The wife and I recently celebrated our 10 year, and she told me to find someplace international and cheap...We always travel with our daughter so it had to be someplace 100% safe...so Baja it was.

We stayed in Cabo and ended up finding what was a nice bare bones hotel 5 or so blocks inside town, the Hotel Sante Fe. Depending on how long you book the price varies, say, 40something to 70ish, and the room comes with 2 beds, AC, and a kitchenette. It would be a great place for a few guys on a boys fishing excursion, or someone traveling that wanted a safe place to have a proper shower, do laundry, etc.

A block east of Sante Fe is this little joint in which one can get lunch, buy a baby stroller, or have their dog groomed. It's all up to you...and the food was the great btw:

Another 3 blocks to the east was the best eatery in Cabo (I'll Indian leg wrestle you over it) Birria De Res LA Terminal:

They're only open 7-12, and serve Birria, Menudo, and lengua or cabeza tacos, nothing else. It's the shizzle.

I like to get up early so I'd often get up, get coffee, go eat a bowl of Birria, then go get the girls up for second breakfast.

After a day on Medano we'd had enough of both tourists and hawkers so off to somewhere else. After google mapping a bit before we left I saw that we could take the 'long cut' to both Lovers and Divorce beach across the bay. All of the Pacific side hotels seem to be the ultra swank hotels, and try to block beach access, though AFAIK it's illegal for them to do so in Mexico. Anyhow we legged it through the Solmar like we owned the joint, and had to hike up this to make it to the beaches:

On the way back the tide was out enough for us to run around the front of the rocks, though a word of warning for anyone headed there: DON'T MESS WITH THE PACIFIC.

srsly. It's powerful and steep in this area and even the locals that were surfing had a 'tender' boat there to assist them if necessary.

The day after was a special day for our daughter as she was able to hit up the popular Cabo dolphins and swim, feed, command, and play with a dolphin. It's a bit spendy, but a pretty cool experience for animal loving kids. I haven't scanned any of the pics ( they really get you on those!) but I do have one of her downstairs with a parrot:

The day after that was my first day to fish and with the help of some pals that have guided in the area I was able to assemble a crack commando unit:

I fished the beaches with a 10wt. and spent a day in a Panga casting a 12wt. with a local guide. If anyone is headed that way PM me and I can help you find a reliable professional English speaking guide for a very good price.

Anyhow, I knew the fishing would be tough with the off season and cold water, but man! Wind! We didn't even troll past the old lighthouse Pacific side as we took wave after wave over the bow. I was 110% newb dumb gringo as I only had a polo, shorts and flip flops on for the day. It was still pretty warm by my standards, and the spotty fishing action was filled in by whales breaching closely, dolphins and rays jumping and sarks and seals constantly swimming under the boat. A killer experience all around.

We were able to get on one bait ball (yeah only 1) which lasted all of seconds, and I ended the day with 4 new species of fish caught on the fly for myself, and a couple of Sierra mackerel to eat as well. Here's a pic of my pals I stole for reference:
I had quite a few sierra hook ups but the fish were super skittish, even short striking me, which is very unlike these fish . The schools were very small, and the fish refused any fly with bite wire (Sierras have very sharp serrated teeth), which meant every time I had a strike/fish I had to reel up and re-tie. I pretty much had to run a bit guard of 60lb fluoro to 25lb fluoro(6' total) to my sinking shooting head (I ran 450 grains of leadcore) and I'd cast, let it sink for 20-40 seconds and then strip in as fast as possible.
Honestly guys the fishing was so tough I was focused on being productive the whole time, and I didn't bother busting the camera out for a money shot the entire day.

I did get this one after a local chef made us lunch though:

Here's me resting after a rough day of fishing my arse off, and the wife is frowning due to not listening to me about applying more sun screen.

We had Ali @ Ali's International on La Playita cook the Sierras up for us. Ali speaks 5 or languages, has worked across the globe, is a good chat, and a damn fine guy behind the cooker as well. Now he runs his little beach shanty cafe near the harbour in San Jose Del Cabo, and I suggest a visit if you're down there.
I was supposed to fish another day with Ramon but I guess I'm not all that hardcore as some, because I opted out to just hang with the girls and do nada for another day, and man do I love to do nada in Mexico.

Later in the week we spent time at Chileano beach:

Chileano is an enclave of 3 different beaches, some sort of fish reserve(guess how I found out it was no fishing :rofl a popular topless spot(guess how we found that out ), and a good quiet place to take the fam ( so long as your wife is o.k. with you knowing there are other nice racks out there besides hers I recon) Anyhow it's quiet and nice and I suggest a visit.

We also found La playita beach, a few feet away from the panga fleet at San Jose Del Cabo, and the kind of beach you'll see few tourists at. The locals tell me the rooster fishing can be epic, but I just couldn't get it done on the fly from the beach here. The weather was off, and I never did make a trip to the beach @ 0:dark30..was too busy sleeping in or eating I guess .
Just how I like it, no gringos:

The rest of our stay was made up of variatons of: tacos/street food, walking, sunshine, sleeping in, and chillin' at the beach...a pretty awesome experience and attitude adjustment when compared to cold rainy traffic infested no steelheadz havin' Seattle.